Apparatus for opening fibre bales



Jan. 2, 1968 TAKAsHl MORIKAWA ETAL 3,360,831

APPARATUS FOR OPENING FIBRE BALBS Filed July 6, 1964 I 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS` Jan. 2, 1968 TAKAsl-u MORIKAWA ETAL 3,350,831

v APPARATUS FOR OPENING FIBRE BALES Filed July 1964 5 sheets-sheet 2 F/g 3. (A) (5') w/ MORE THAN /2 OF PITCHBET.

THE Gmo ROLLERS ILENGTH 0F BALE BY @JLMM/ SLJ ATTORNEYS* t W W,

INVENTORS Jan. 2, 1968 TAKASHI MORJKAWA ETAL Y. A 3,360,831

APPARATUS FR OPENING FIBRE BALES Y Filed July e, 1964 5 sheets-sheet INVEN-rons BY MMM' j ATToRNl-:Ys/

Jan. z, 1968 TAKSHI MORIKAWA ETALv 3,360,831

' APPARATUS `FOR OPENING FIBRE BALES 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed July l6, 1964 LLL/28 MM )im INVENTORS BYMJMM/ 5.25 -ATTORNEYS Jan. 2, 1968 TAKASHI MORIKAWA ETAL 3,360,831

y APPARATUS FOR OPENING FIBRE BALES Filed July 6, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet l5 INVENTORS T. MORIKAWA K. AOKI N. ARITA Y. FUJITANI S.v MISHIRO By W M. MIYOSHI ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3 Claims. (Cl. 19-80) This invention relates to a method of opening and stacking of fibre from bales wherein the fibres of one or more bales of fibre are plucked off the bottom thereof and, after stacking the several fibres, they are fed to the next following processing step. The invention also relates to an apparatus for practicing the foregoing method.

In the opening of bales wherein the various types of fibres are plucked off in accordance with the proportions in which they are to be blended and While effecting the blending thereof they are delivered to the next following processing step, the practice heretofore was to feed direct ly to the condenser hopper picker or the like, the fibre tufts plucked from the opened bales of the various types of fibres in accordance with the proportion in which they were to be blended.

The gist of the present invention resides in an opening and stacking method which comprises plucking olf fibres uniformly from the bottom of bales and then, after first storing the respective fibres in their reserve boxes, laying the fibres in sheets or mats one on top of another according to the prescribed blending rati-o and thereafter feeding the fibre sheet to the next following process. The invention is also directed to an apparatus for opening and stacking fibre from bales by which the hereinabove described method is carried out, the apparatus comprising a combination of a plurality of plucking mechanisms and a rack for mounting the fibre bales which are to have fibre plucked therefrom by means of the plucking mechanisms, said rack being capable of effecting the reciprocative movements of the fibre bales in the longitudinal as well as transverse directions above the plucking mechanisms, conveying means disposed below the several plucking mechanisms for feeding the plucked ofi libres to their corresponding reserve boxes, and a conveying means disposed below the several reserve boxes and adapted to lay one on top of another the fibres in sheets or mats delivered from said reserve boxes. Further, the rack is provided with a plurality lof grid rollers disposed in parallel and rotating in the same direction first in a clockwise and then in a counterclockwise direction, the purpose being to move the fibre bales mounted on the rack reciprocally. On the other hand, the plu-cking mechanism is positioned between the foregoing grid rollers and consists of a plurality of plucking saws or blades installed on one or two rotatable plucking rollers shafts that move relative to the fibre bale.

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a method of plucking different fibres separately from a plurality of fibre bales and feeding the fibres necessary for blending to reserve boxes for the purpose of stacking the same.

Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which plucks .off different fibres separately from the bottom of a plurality of fibre bales and, after conveying the plucked off fibres to their separate reserve boxes, feeds the fibres of the reserve boxes to the next processing step in accordance with a prescribed blending ratio.

A further object of the invention is to provide a rack for mounting the fibre bales and a plucking mechanism, which combination plucks off the bottom of the bales evenly.

Other objects, functions, effects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description.

The introduction of the invention method and apparatus into the conventional spinning process can contribute to a still greater rationalization of this process. Heretofore in blending the fibres, the fibres fed to the blending lattice in prescribed proportions could not be controlled so as to be very accurate. According to the present invention, the fibre bales are plucked -by means of the plucking mechanism, and then the plucked off fibre tufts are stored in the several reserve boxes by means of a conveying means for transporting the fibres. Since the reserve boxes are provided with detecting means by which the amount of fibre in each box is maintained constant, the fibre sheets delivered therefrom are of the desired uniform density. These sheets can then be laid one on top of another in sandwich fashion by means of the conveying means for blending use, following which the blended fibre sheet is delivered to the next processing step.

Recently, there was developed a bale opening method and apparatus wherein in 'a plurality of fibre bales are reciprocated transversely on a horizontal stand to pluck the fibres from below the fibre bales, and the plucked fibres are dropped on a conveyor to blend and transfer them.

However, in accordance with this known method, because a plurality of plucked fibres are caused to fall, or be transferred onto, a common conveyor cooperating with each of the plucking mechanisms, it is diicult to control the proportion of fibres even if different kinds of fibre bales are serially-arranged on the stand. In addition, because the group of fibre bales are reciprocated only in the Ilongitudinal direction of the bales, it is impossible to perform a uniform plucking action on the whole under surface of the fibre bales, and there occurs an unfavorable difference in the size of the plucked fibre tufts. In addition, the adoption of the p-resent invention makes possible, without the need for a large space, the highly efficient plucking of fibres from bales of different types of fibres .and also the saudwiching of the different types of fibres accurately. In consequence, the fibre can be fed to the next following process with a uniform blend.

The invention is described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, it being understood however that the invention is not limited to the embodiment illustrated and described, but is t-o include all modifications and variations within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of abale opening apparatus comprising plucking mechanisms and a rack for reciprocatingly moving the fibre bale;

FIG. 2 is an end View of the foregoing bale opening apparatus; Y

FIG. 3 is a view showing the locus of movement of a fibre bale traveling over plucking rollers which rotate at a fixed location;

FIG 4 is a side View illustrating the arrangement wherein the bale opening apparatus, reserve boxes and blowing machine have been connected;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing another `arrangement of the foregoing equipment;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of one of the reserve boxes;

FIG. 7 isa plan view of the bale opening apparatus, reserve boxes and blowing machine showing wagons on which a plurality of fibre bales have been mounted;

FIG. 8 is a front elevation showing an embodiment wherein a plurality of apparatuses shown in FIG. l are mounted on a single frame;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line lX-IX of FIG. 8; and

FIGS. l and 11 are partial plan views showing the relationship between the grid roller driving means and the actuating stops therefor.

Each of the libre bales, the bands of which have been undone, is placed on a rack lll having a plurality of grid rollers l2 disposed longitudinally and provided with side frames l5 on both sides. The grid rollers i2 are rotatably supported by bearings ldon transverse frame members 14a connected with side frames i5 and coupled at one of their ends with rotating means 13 comprising a shaft .12 having lever 43 thereon and having a plurality of bevel gears dll thereon meshing with bevel gears 45 on each roller i2. By angular displacement of the lever i3 of the rotating means 13, the rollers are simultaneously rotated in a clockwise or a counterclockwise direction. The rack l@ consisting of the said side frames i5, transverse frames Ma and the grid rollers 12. is mounted on guide rollers i6 mounted on iixed frames 17 at intervals, and is adapted to reciprocate in the longitudinal direction when the guide rollers are driven. The guide rollers .i6 are driven by another driving source (not shown) by means of a chain Ztl which is drivingly engaged with rollers 16 and which is mounted around sprockets 18, i9, iii and 19 provided at the ends of the fixed trames, and the rack i() is reciprocated on thexed frames i7 by the change of the driving direction of the driving source. rEhe fixed frames 17 are provided at given intervals with projections 2i and 2l', mounted thereon by a conventional bracket or the like, for use in rotating the grid rollers l2 by means of the rotating means 13. When the rack lo proceeds a predetermined distance in the direction of an arrow b, the lever 43 of rotating means 13 mounted on the rack 10 collides with the said projection 21 near the end of its travel whereby the said rotating means i3 is subjected to anguiar displacement, the grid rollers i2 are simultaneously rotated in the same direction by meshing of the bevel gears, and the iore bale (A) on the gril rollers begins to be slightly moved in the transverse direction. When the grid rollers l2 are rotated to a point where the under surface of the libre bale, which has faced the upper surface of the grid rollers, appears between the grid rollers 12, the movement of the rack itl in the longitudinal direction is changed from the arrow b to the arrow a. Likewise, when the rack lil proceeds a predetermined distance (about equal to the longitudinal length of the bale) in the direction of an arrow a, the lever d3" of the rotating means 13 collideswith another projection Zi', and is displaced angularly in the opposite direction and causes the grid rollers l2 to rotate in the opposite direction. This in turn moves the libre bale (A) in the transverse direction, and thereafter the rack it) `again moves in the direction of an arrow b.

Mounted on fixed frames 17 so as to be rotatable at right angles yto the frames are plucking rollers Z3, 23 which are parallel and facing each other. The rollers are provided respectively with teeth 24 and 2d which face each other and are positioned between the grid rollers 12 so that said teeth project only slightly higher than the tops of the grid rollers (FIG. 2; FG. 1 not shown to scale). Below the line of teeth 24, 24 is provided a hopper 25, the bottom of which opens into duct 27 which connects to a reserve box Z8, there being a fan 25 provided `at one end of the duct for creating a blast of air. 29 is the nozzle plate from which the blast of air from fan 26 is injected to thus convey pneumatically to the reserve box the fibres which have dropped into the hop.-

per.

it rack i0 with the iibre bale loaded on top of the grid rollers 12 is pulled by chain 2b over `guide rollers 1.6 by means of the operation of the driving source, it moves in either the a or b direction. When rack comes to the end-of its reciprocative movement, grid rollers 12, being driven by the s-ame driving source, rotate in the same direction at the same rotational speed. Thus, the fibre bale A moves in the lengthwise as well as transverse direction. In consequence, the plucking rollers 23, 23 being made to rotate so that the teeth on the top move toward each other during the movement of the fibre bale, pluck away the bottom of the libre bale. The plucked fibres drop into hopper 25' from whence they are conveyed to reserve box 2d via duct 27 by means of blast tan 26. As the iibre bale A makes lengthwise as well as transverse reciprocative movement at this time, its bottom is plucked away evenly by the plucking saws or blades 2d, 24.

While there are various loci ot action of the plucking saws or blades 24, 2d depending upon the rotation of the grid rollers 1?., in general, they are of the three kinds shown in FIG. 3A as zigzag, FIG. 3B as rectangular and in FG. 3C as parallelograrn as represented by FIG. 3. in FiG. 3A is shown the instance when rack l@ is moved in one direction while simultaneously rotating grid rollers i2. That shown in PEG. 3B is the instance when after moving rack l@ a distance equal to the length of the baie, the movement of the rack is stopped temporarily and then after rotating grid rollers l2 to move the bale slightly, the rack is moved in the opposite direction without rotation of the ygrid rollers. On the other hand, FIG. 3C shows the instance when after moving rack lll a distance equal to the length of the bale, the grid rollers 12 are rotated simultaneously with movement of the rack in the opposite direction.

The several reserve boxes 28, as illustrated in FIG. 6, are constructed in such a manner that their bottom part is a screen 3i), through which only the air which has been delivered passes to escape to the outside of the box. The nbre to the boxes 2S is fed in sheet form to the top of conveyor 32 by means of the rotation of the delivery rollers 3l. in the direction of the arrows. The amount of libre that is fed to the conveyor by delivery rollers 3i in this case is an amount somewhat smaller than that delivered to the box, thus ensuring that there is always an accumulation of libres in the box. The adjustment of the amount of bres to be plucked in accordance with the blending ratio of the fibres can be accomplished by increasing or decreasing the depth of the bite of the pluck-` ing operation.

FlG. 4 illustrates an arrangement in which a plurality of racks lill and an equal number of plucking means are respectively combined, the several plucking means each communicating with different reserve boxes 2S by means of separate ducts 27, and then by way of a common blending conveyor 32, provided below the reserve boxes 23 connection is had with cleaner 33, a distributor 34 aud a blowing machine 35. in this apparatus, the several fibres stored in the several reserve boxes 23 are successively fed to conveyor 32 as sheets of uniform density and in prescribed amounts by means of delivery rollers 31 to be laid one on top of another in sandwich fashion during the travel of conveyor 32, and thereafter delivered to the blowing machine. On the other hand, FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment wherein two sets of the apparatus shown in FIG. 4 were installed, the same reference numerals standing for the same functions. FIG. 7, on the other hand, illustrates an embodiment wherein the rack is made up by wagons itl which by being caused to reciprocate over their respective plucking mechanisms 23" accomplish the plucking of iibres from the fibre bales A1, A2, A3, etc., which are mounted on said wagons 10. The plucked libres are then delivered pneumatically to their respective reserve boxes 28 via their respective ducts 27. It is also possible to have other wagons on which are mounted fibre bales A standing ready at all times to replace wagons itl which have become empty by having had their iibre bales A1, etc., completely plucked away. FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate a mode in which a plurality of iibre bales A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 are mounted on a long rectangular rack 1b, and while reciprocating this rack through a stroke somewhat longer than the length of a fibre bale, the fibres are plucked away with plucking rollers 23, 23' and delivered via the several hoppers 25 and ducts 27 to the several reserve boxes 28. In this case, a detection device 36 such as a photoelectric cell is provided in each of the reserve boxes 28 and by this detection device functioning when the amount of fibre in each box exceeds or falls below the prescribed amounts the feed of the bre is either stopped or continued to maintain constantly a given amount of libre in each reserve box. The libres contained in the reserve boxes 28 are delivered in prescribed amounts as a uniform sheet to the blending conveyor where they are stacked into sandwich form and then delivered to the next following operation.

What is claimed is:

1. A fibre opening apparatus comprising a plucking mechanism, a rack including grid rollers are rotatably mounted therein for carrying a fibre bale to be plucked thereon and positioned above said plucking mechanism, said rack being reciprocally movable above said plucking mechanism in the longitudinal direction of said rack and rotation of said grid rollers displacing a bre bale thereon in the transverse direction of said rack, rack drive means coupled to said rack for reciprocating the rack, grid roller rotating means on said rack coupled to said grid rollers for rotating the grid rollers at the end of each reciprocation of said rack, and conveyor means beneath said plucking mechanism for receiving the fibres and delivering them to a next following processing step.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said grid rollers are parallel to the longitudinal direction of said rack, each of said rollers having at one end a bevel gear, a plurality of corresponding bevel gears mounted on said rotating means and meshed with said grid roller bevel gears, and said plucking mechanism comprising a rotatable plucking roller shaft having a plurality of plucking saws thereon, a pair of said saws being positioned between each pair of adjacent grid rollers and with respect to which said libre bale is moved during movement of said rack and is displaced by the grid rollers.

3. An `apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which said plucking mechanism comprising two plucking roller shafts, and a plurality of plucking saws mounted on each shaft, the direction of rotation of said plucking shafts and the direction of action of said plucking saws on the plucking roller shafts being opposite to each other.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A FIBRE OPENING APPARATUS COMPRISING A PLUCKING MECHANISM, A RACK INCLUDING GRID ROLLERS ARE ROTATABLY MOUNTED THEREIN FOR CARRYING A FIBRE BALE TO BE PLUCKED THEREON AND POSITIONED ABOVE SAID PLUCKING MECHANISM, SAID RACK BEING RECIPROCALLY MOVABLE ABOVE SAID PLUCKING MECHANISM IN THE LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION OF SAID RACK AND ROTATION OF SAID GRID ROLLERS DISPLACING A FIBRE BALE THEREON IN THE TRANSVERSE DIRECTION OF SAID RACK, RACK DRIVE MEANS COUPLED TO SAID RACK FOR RECIPROCATING THE RACK, GRID ROLLER ROTATING MEANS ON SAID RACK COUPLED TO SAID GRID ROLLERS FOR ROTATING MEANS ON SAID RACK COUPLED TO EACH RECIPROCATION OF SAID RACK, AND CONVEYOR MEANS BENEATH SAID PLUCKING MECHANISM FOR RECEIVING THE FIBERS AND DELIVERING THEM TO A NEXT FOLLOWING PROCESSING STEP. 